The First 7 Days After Hurricane Helene Hit My Homestead

 

Source: selfsufficientprojects.com

This article may be a little more intense than you’re used to from me. Hurricane Helene was forecast to hit the Atlanta area.

Instead, it barreled right through my life and our farm. We were extremely lucky that it wasn’t worse, but we had no internet for 21 days, no power or running water for two weeks, and lost multiple structures, fence lines, and so, so many trees.

Let’s talk about the first seven days.

Day One: September 27th

I went to bed very late that morning, around 12:30 am. At that point, we’d had 4 or 5 inches of rain over the past day. A lot, but not unheard of. The forecast was still telling us that Hurricane Helene was going to hit about 200 miles west of us.

We were supposed to get 15 mph winds, maybe another inch of rain, and a little gusting. I’d tied the rabbit hutch down and brought the livestock guardian dogs in and shrugged it off. I was probably being paranoid just having bought a few extra gallons of water and some “we don’t have power” kind of snacks.

I woke up a few hours later to the shriek of metal shearing off my livestock shelters and garden, and the screams of terrified livestock, followed by endless crashing sounds as tree after tree smashed to the ground. The dirt had become so incredibly saturated that there was no way those trees were holding on through 100+ mph winds.

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We walked out to a world that looked like a nuke had gone off. Areas we had never seen through due to tree cover were now as bare and high vis as the road itself usually was.

The road was impassable, as was our driveway. My garden? Everything was in pieces except for a few fruit trees that managed to take a hit and laugh about it. The livestock were okay, if horribly frightened. The barn cat shelter was under dozens of trees: they were all okay, too, though we had to use a catch net to fish one terrified cat out.

The rabbits were crushed under trees, my trusty old hutches flat. The rabbits themselves? Safe and sound due to the bracing I’d built into the designs years and years ago when they got put up.

There was nothing to do: no power, no water, and almost no internet or phone signal from our phones. We were trapped. And we had all of two days of water and food with us; and no way to get more.

Day Two: September 28th

Some kind neighbors sawed a path through one of our pastures to come to check on us. After significant work, we managed to get the truck out of the hole they sawed. Transport was important.

I had to find water.

Maybe we had been hit the worst, I told myself. Maybe up in town wasn’t so bad.

A tree bigger around than the truck blocked the road up into town. People were working on it; not the county, but local people who lived near it. They told me to come back in about an hour. I jumped out and helped them move wood for an hour instead because you don’t let your neighbors do all the work.

We managed to get up into town. Power poles were everywhere. Traffic lights had been blown to pieces. There was no power. In all of the Augusta, GA area, there was one Wal-Mart open and a single Waffle House. And there was no help in sight. None. Nothing.

I spent hundreds of dollars getting us set up for a long, bad time to come at that Wal-Mart. It still didn’t have a fraction of what we needed, but we got some water. We got some food. It was Something.

Day Three: September 29th

Five and a half hours in the gas line just trying to fill my truck up because there was no one flagging traffic as lines merged time and time again.

The police, FEMA (who never showed up in my county), and absolutely everyone that is supposed to respond in a disaster area was completely worthless. The only thing the cops were protecting were businesses: guns out and staring down people who were desperate to buy anything they could to maybe sustain themselves through this mess.

Country people like me don’t forget seeing that. I doubt any of us will.

Day Four: September 30th

Our electrical company told us we would have power restored within a week. What a joke that ended up being.

By day four, we heard that the kennel good ways up the road had a hose out by the road. I ran to the local Lowes and stocked up on two things: 5-gallon buckets with lids and more pallets of 16.9 oz water bottles.

Did you know that a 5-gallon bucket full of water weighs right around 50 pounds? After handing over a thousand pounds of water over the fence to my little brother, I did. So, so much.

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Day Five: October 1st

We were once again assured that we would have power “very soon”. Again, what a joke.

Our driveway was still a mess and it was not going to get better any time soon. We used our car to charge our phones and have a little bit of a break from the 90-degree heat. Heads up: did you know most modern vehicles require a special funnel to put gas in your car? Make sure you have one just in case of an emergency like this!

This was also the day that I finally managed to find a small, charcoal grill for the family (and anyone else near us that needed to cook out). We ate hot food at home for the first time on this day. It was wonderful.

Day Six: October 2nd

Gas! Blessed gasoline at our most local gas station (about 15 minutes away). There was no line because no one knew it was there. I filled up everything I could with gas so I could refuel the car, the truck, and bring some extra to a couple of the neighbors who had generators. This was also the day that this gas station got power: and ice.

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It was a three-hour wait for ice, but it was worth it. Most days after this, it was a 5 am wake-up just to run up to the gas station and purchase the 20 pounds of ice I desperately needed to keep my refrigerator cool enough that my insulin did not go bad in the 88-90+ F degree weather. Prior to ice being available, we used frozen meat from our deep freezers. That was gone by the end of day five. We got very, very lucky.

Day Seven: October 3rd

We knew, by this point, that we weren’t getting power or running water back any time soon. The library opened and I managed to get down there (there was a lot of off-road driving involved in that) to update people on our situation. It would be another six days before we had any trace of power, which flickered on and off for the next week after that.

It was a ride. A rough, tiresome ride. It was also the deciding factor in us moving north even sooner than we’d planned; we don’t have any desire to do this again. While we know blizzards may await us, we’d rather have to dig out of the snow than get slammed with a hurricane with no warning whatsoever. At the end of the day: no, thank you. We’ll take our chances in the cold, white stuff.

Have you been through a massive natural disaster? What did your experience look like? Tell us in the comments below!

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